Johnny Ruin by Dan Dalton

Haunted by the idea that he is somehow broken, the narrator – a depressed, heartbroken, thirty-something writer – embarks on a journey through his own mind with his spirit guide, Jon Bon Jovi, for company.

From the redwoods of California to a crumbling New York City, they travel the highways of our narrator’s memory, an imagined America, where his thoughts are tangled with fragments from the songs and movies that shaped him, and where he can’t help but replay scenes from his doomed relationship.

Our depressed narrator embarks on a mental road trip with his spirit guide Jon Bon Jovi in this weird and wonderful debut which manages to be witty, gut wrenching, and immersive in equal parts.

— Book Riot

Strange, intense... brilliant

— S. J. Watson

A great big howl from the abyss of a broken heart. Incredible

— Richard Skinner

If you found yourself in a dark wood in the middle of your life, who would you want to lead you out of it? Virgil or Jon Bon Jovi? Dan Dalton chose the latter for a guide and the result is this marvellously strange and sad novel, shot through with a dark gleaming wit